Austin, Texas – Thinking about launching a Crowdfunding campaign to raise money to fund your creative business idea and bring it to fruition? The Crowdfunding Press Center provides regular news reports on new Crowdfunding sites that have opened their doors to help entrepreneurs and small businesses launch fundraising campaigns to help bring their ingenious business ideas to fruition.

Top 10 Crowdfunding Sites for 2014

The big question that most crowdfunding campaign managers want to know is what crowdfunding site is the best to launch their fundraising campaign? Kickstarter vs. Indiegogo, which crowdfunding site is better? Or would one of the other crowdfunding sites outlined below be a better match for their precise crowdfunding goals and objectives.

PowerCloud Systems announced that Skydog reached its $75,000 funding goal on Kickstarter, and will now extend its home network offering to larger homes and small businesses. Skydog is a Wi-Fi router and mobile companion app that brings a user-friendly approach and innovative management functionality to home networking. With one week left to raise post-goal funds, PowerCloud Systems has unveiled two new offers available via Kickstarter: a Skydog Wi-Fi Range Extender Kit, ideal for large homes and small businesses, and a Multi-Dwelling Skydog Four-Pack, for those who want to manage multiple networks, such as adult parents’ homes, on a single account.

The Power of the Skydog’s Cloud Delivers Wi-Fi to Your Wireless Mobile Users

Both new offers were created in response to requests and feedback from Kickstarter backers to broaden the reach of Skydog’s unique network visibility and control features. The extender kit will allow users to cover up to 6,000 square feet with wireless internet access and all of Skydog’s control and management functionality. This range comfortably covers large houses and many small business, such as restaurants and professional offices, where the ability to offer firewalled Wi-Fi access to customers, clients or patients is increasingly important.

The Skydog router four-pack enables simple, single-account management for multiple networks and locations, such as a second home, vacation cabin, or parent’s home across the country. The Skydog Wi-Fi Range Extender Kit is available for a pledge of $299, while a four pack of Skydog routers is available for pledges of $399 or more.

“We were thrilled to have reached our funding goal so quickly because it proved that Skydog addresses an unmet need for simple visibility and control of personal Wi-Fi networks,” said Jeff Abramowitz , founder and CEO of PowerCloud Systems. “We are very grateful to our backers and look forward to getting Skydog into their homes. With our new offers, we can better serve those with larger homes and multiple dwellings, as well as provide an easy-to-use solution for small businesses.”

The proliferation of connected devices in homes and small businesses is creating a complexity challenge for anyone responsible for managing a network. PowerCloud Systems, with its extensive experience providing Networking-as-a-Service to the enterprise, has the expertise and, with the success of Skydog’s Kickstarter campaign, the consumer validation to disrupt the home, and now small business, networking space.

The Skydog solution represents a new era in network management, enabling users in households and small businesses to improve their connected experiences. The solution gives real-time visibility to network administrators, who can monitor their network in terms of which users and specific devices are connected to it, for how long, and for what purposes. With Skydog, heads of households can even manage broadband usage by setting up zones which place bandwidth priority on certain functions, like the home office during the day and streaming video at night. Furthermore, all of this can be done anytime and anywhere via the Skydog mobile companion, an HTML5 app that works on any smartphone or tablet.

CE Week announced plans to host an innovative new lineup of keynotes and Crowdfunding conference sessions from the most well known names in the technology industry. The 2013 CE Week Line Shows and Exhibits are scheduled for June 26-27 at the Metropolitan Pavilion and Altman Building in New York City. This event is the official show headquarters of a week-long series of CE technology events taking place in the city over the course of CE Week, June 24-28.

CE Week LIne Shows & Exhibits is the Official Headquarters of CE Week, featuring the show’s largest exhibit floor of new products and start-ups, the largest concentration of conferences and attendees.

Aereo Founder and CEO Chet Kanojia will join Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CEA, for an in-depth conversation about how technology innovation drives Aereo’s business strategy, at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, June 26.

Living in Digital Times will display the best and brightest in mobile app technology at the Mobile App Showdown. During this live event at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 26, ten finalists will put their apps to the test and the audience will cast the deciding vote on the best app.

Top company executives from Pioneer, Monster, Kenwood, Toshiba, IK Multimedia, Samsung and BlueBOLT will introduce new products and discuss what’s ahead for their companies during press conferences.

The CE Week SuperSessions will address popular topics including 3D printing, crowdfunding, and the next generation of gaming. Sessions include:

Polygon SuperSession: Video Gaming’s Other Next-Gen [June 26 at 1:35 p.m.] – With so much attention focused on new video game consoles from Microsoft and Sony, both of whom are poised to usher in another “next generation” of gaming later this year, it’s easy to miss that an entirely separate alternative generation of video game consoles is taking shape. Join us as we explore this nascent “other” generation, typified by a focus on mobile hardware, open operating systems, digital delivery and an indie-friendly publishing model.Moderator: Christopher Grant, editor-in-chief, Polygon

CNET SuperSession: Bringing 3D Printing to Consumers [June 26 at 3:15 p.m.] – We hear about new 3D printing breakthroughs almost every week now, ranging from houses to prosthetic skull implants to 3D printing on Mars. For consumers, 3D printing is either science fiction, or it suffers from the perception that it’s an expensive, time-consuming hobby with little practical utility. How can consumer-facing 3D printing companies improve their image and attract more mainstream users? Should that even be the goal? This panel will explore the issues and solutions around taking 3D printing to the mass market.Moderator: Rich Brown, senior editor, CNET

Mashable SuperSession: The Battle Over Smartphone Screen Size[June 27 at 10:15 a.m.] – Since 2010, the average size of cell phone screens has increased by almost a full inch. Plus-size phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note have expanded the displays of all models, to the point where it’s impossible to buy a top Android phone with a screen smaller than 4.7 inches. Does this trend have a ceiling, and what does it mean for people with normal-size hands?Moderator: Lance Ulanoff, editor-in-chief, Mashable

Engadget SuperSession: Crowdfunding the Hardware Revolution [June 27 at 1:45 p.m.] – Welcome to the dawn of the age of hardware startups. Sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter have changed the way we think about starting a business, from funding to user feedback. We’ll talk to success stories about the new business paradigm and discuss some tips for getting started in the world of crowdfunding.Moderator: Brian Heater, director of media, Engadget

The CE Week Line Shows Conference Program is part of the full CE Week conference program, including 50-plus sessions and featuring more than 150 speakers. Conference tracks include the CEA Research Summit, Crowdfunding, Women in CE Forum, Connected Car Conference, Digital Health Summit, 2nd Screen Summit, Ultra HD Conference and Techlicious Summit.

Kickstarter and IndieGoGo have become thriving, efficient markets for firms and ventures to raise new capital for and awareness around projects. 2013 estimates for crowdfunding top $5.1 billion, an 89% increase from 2012, and millions of projects big and small have benefitted from crowdfunding campaigns.

An Empirical Examination of the Antecedents and Consequences of Contribution Patterns in Crowd-Funded Markets

In new research forthcoming in Information Systems Research, Anindya Ghose, NYU Stern Associate Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences and co-Director of the Center for Business Analytics, with Gordon Burtch at the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management and Sunil Wattal at Temple University’s Fox School of Business, quantifies how donors influence each other in the crowdfunding process, and finds that quick fundraising, while seemingly desirable, can have downsides.

The authors study a crowdfunding market that supports journalists who raise money to research and write stories for online publication and find that:

A longer fundraising campaign increases a project’s future demand: Projects that take twice as long to meet their fundraising target experience, on average, a 22% increase in demand after the project is completed (in this case, published articles draw more readers), because they have more time to build online word of mouth.

Rapid success with crowdfunding will jeopardize the end goal: When fundraising goals are achieved very quickly, donations on the following day decline by 32%, on average.

To give is to receive: In this specific market which is donation-based and deals with publicly-available online journalism (and can be viewed as a public good), the findings suggest that altruism is a key incentive to contribute.

Crowdfunding CRM software and online fundraising campaigns tap into the power of social media & analytics to grow a large community of supporters and raise funds

The world of non-profit fundraising is changing dramatically as more and more not-for-profit companies turn to Crowdfunding platforms to raise money and awareness for charity and social good projects. And the tools to make those fundraising campaigns more successful and streamlined efforts are evolving as well. For example, Orange Leap developer of cloud-based fundraising and constituent relationship management (CRM) software, partnered with give2gether to enable online fundraising and peer-to-peer campaigns for non-profits using Orange Leap CRM software.

Fundraising Automation – Orange Leap’s powerful business rules engine automates your routine fundraising and communications processes as well as maintains the integrity of your data so you can focus on building relationships with constituents instead of pulling data.

Orange Leap clients can now utilize give2gether’s platform to promote their cause by communicating with their constituents. give2gether’s unique approach to online fundraising helps non-profits monetize their social media interactions, grow their community of supporters and raise more funds. Acknowledgements and funds generated are distributed automatically alleviating additional work.

“Orange Leap’s non-profit clients can take advantage of give2gether’s powerful online fundraising technology coupled with their Orange Leap donor management system,” said Kent Hollrah , President of Orange Leap. “Our clients simply add a ‘donate now’ button to their website, or launch turn-key social fundraising campaigns throughout the year. By partnering with give2gether, clients can have all their fundraising needs met, including email, social sharing, cause related campaigns, walkathons and team events.”

Arnon Shafir , CEO and Co-founder of give2gether said “We created a ‘do-it-for-me now’ button to let nonprofits instantly create custom campaign pages that are compelling, simple to share, and generating better results. Our expertises in campaign optimization help nonprofits triple their donor conversion rates. Automated deployment takes less than 10 seconds to get started.”

give2gether is a Software-as-a-Service platform for nonprofits to triple donor conversion rates. give2gether’s platform help non-profits launch custom online fundraising campaigns, streamline their crowdfunding, grow communities of supporters and raise more funds. give2gether’s software tool is based on ten years of behavioral research and years of live campaigns, bringing unique, breakthrough insights on why people give online and what makes them inspire, engage and involve others. give2gether improves people’s lives: those who receive, those who give and those who inspire their community to open their hearts for a cause.

“In addition to signing on these most recent crowdfunded clients, everyday I’m meeting with new potential clients who have received their first rounds of funding and now require financial expertise to help manage these new funds,” said David Ehrenberg, CEO of EGFS. “More and more of these companies are funded by crowdsourcing. One great example of the power of crowdfunding is our new client OUYA, an Android-powered gaming console, which achieved massive levels of success with their Kickstarter campaign, raising $8.5 million. This isn’t something you would have seen back in 2008 when I first started EGFS. Now the capital is flowing directly to companies that need and deserve funding.”

According to Scott Jordan, of S. Jordan & Associates (SJA), a life sciences investment banking and business development consultancy, “Crowdfunding works by democratizing the flow of capital to promising start-ups; meaning investors of means (accredited investors) have the opportunity to participate in an asset class that was previously limited, and have the opportunity to diversify their holdings in this asset class as part of their overall asset allocation to minimize risk.”

Where crowdfunding has really taken off is within niche markets, as EGFS can attest. Says Ehrenberg, “We’re definitely seeing more niche crowdfunding companies. EGFS is proud to announce our support of Indiegogo, the leading international crowdfunding platform, which has successfully helped entrepreneurs raise millions of dollars for thousands of campaigns worldwide. And I’m meeting with more niche crowdfunding companies every day who have been inspired to take crowdfunding to the next level within their sector.”

Health Tech Hatch is one such niche crowdfunding company that proves there is a real opportunity in targeted crowdfunding platforms. Pat Salber, Founder and CEO of Health Tech Hatch, believes that there is an important “role for specialized sites, like Health Tech Hatch, that focus on one sector” (in their case, early-stage innovations in health care) because they “know the industry, can better evaluate the prospects of an innovation, and have a large network of industry connections.”

As EGFS continues to sign-on clients who’ve benefited from crowdfunding, in Ehrenberg’s opinion, we’ve only just begun to see the power of crowdfunding. “I believe we will continue to see innovation within this movement,” says Ehrenberg. “Crowdfunding is putting the power in the hands of the people and helping to launch companies that may not have traditionally received funding. It’s an exciting time for entrepreneurs and an exciting time for EGFS. Professional services are the beneficiaries of the crowdfunding movement as much as the funded companies themselves.”

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According to the Federal Reserve of Chicago, large bank lending to small businesses has fallen by over 50 percent since the start of the 2007 recession, yet Accion Chicago, a CDFI microlender, reported an 80 percent increase in loan applications from small businesses from 2008 to 2011.

Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp., the leading provider of credit building and credibility solutions for businesses, today announced that registration is open for its Access to Capital: Money to Mainstreet Event

To help solve the loan and lending shortfall, the Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. announced that it has opened its registration for the Access to Capital: Money to Mainstreet Event which will be held Wednesday, May 22, 2013 from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm at Navy Pier in Chicago.

Additional stops on the tour include Atlanta on August 14th and Seattle on November 12th. These events are designed to foster lending and educate small businesses about the various types of funding that are available through expert panels and on-site 1:1 meetings with a broad spectrum of debt and equity providers.

“With over 99% of American businesses classified as small by the Small Business Administration, it is crucial that this important sector gets access to capital if we want to grow the economy and cut into the nation’s unemployment rate,” said Jeff Stibel, Chairman and CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. “We are very passionate about our Access to Capital events which we believe are a step in helping lead American small businesses back to prosperity. We know from our Los Angeles event, which resulted in tens of millions of dollars in loan originations, that these loans were spurred by the unique access that businesses had to lenders.”

Access to Capital: Money to Mainstreet’s initiative is to educate and grow local small businesses. The events are comprised of two main areas – the “town hall” area where speakers, spotlight series, and panels ranging from topics on traditional bank lending to crowdfunding will take place – and the “financial district” area where small business owners can meet one-on-one with various lenders, legal, business resources and advisors. Key sponsors for the Chicago event include Bank of America, Microsoft, TransUnion, AEO, LegalZoom, and Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses.

Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp.’s Los Angeles Access to Capital event held last year was attended by over 500 Los Angeles based small business owners who took part in hundreds of 1:1 meetings with loan officers, resulting in tens of millions of dollars in reported loan originations.

Lending appointments for Chicago’s event will include representatives ranging from Bank of America to local Chicago area financial institutions such as Accion Chicago, AEO, American Chartered Bank, BMO Harris, First Eagle Bank, Franklin Capital Network, Inland Bank, Merchant Cash and Capital, North Side Community Federal Credit Union, Standard Bank, Ridgestone Bank, and SomerCor 504. Community and business resources that will also be on hand include Microsoft, LegalZoom, TransUnion, Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, Rogers Park Chamber of Commerce, SCORE Chicago, Women’s Business Development Center, Built In, and more.

“According to the Federal Reserve of Chicago, large bank lending to small businesses has fallen by over 50 percent since the start of the 2007 recession, yet Accion Chicago, a CDFI microlender, reported an 80 percent increase in loan applications from small businesses from 2008 to 2011,” said Stibel. “We need to be providing small businesses with roadmaps to a wide variety of capital sources, as well as help them be prepared when it comes to actually qualifying for financing if this glaring gap is to be bridged.”

At the Chicago event, attendees will be given access to a free copy of their business credit report, a key factor in many lenders’ credit decision process. Leading up to the event, attendees will have the opportunity to talk with a Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. certified Credit Advisor to help them prepare for their lending meetings at no cost.

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Hiring an Experienced PR Firm with Strong Media Relations Experience and a Strong Database of Developed Crowdfunding Media Contacts Can Make or Break a Serious Crowdfunding Campaign Drive

Follow these simple tips to find the best Crowdfunding PR firm to help launch a successful Crowdfunding PR campaign for fundraising platforms, portals, websites and individual Crowdfunding campaigns:

Check to see how many years the PR firm has been in business and examine what industries they have served

Review their Crowdfunding activity on popular social media sites such as Linkedin.com, Twitter.com, etc. to see how knowledgeable they are on popular Crowdfunding news trends in the media

Make sure they include a wide variety of written press materials in their monthly retainer, such as a Crowdfunding campaign profile, at least four press releases for a 30-day campaign, a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) sheet, a short white paper, online press room, and media training/message maps for executive interviews, etc.

Make sure that you will be working with a media relations expert that has at least 10+ years of media relations experience. The more media relations experience the better your publicity results will be.

Beware of PR firms that recommend signing up for expensive online tutorials, which then later pressures clients to buy more expensive PR services when they realize that they simply do not have enough time, experience or media skills to pitch stories to reporters successfully

Make sure the PR firm adheres a strict no conflict of interest policy meaning they do not represent two companies or Crowdfunding campaigns that would be considered competitors at the same time.

Ask for a PR publicity guarantee and a clip report that shows clients all the news stories that their Crowdfunding PR campaign generated

Ask the PR firm what other types of value-added marketing services are available such as press conferences, community outreach, email marketing, Google advertising/analytics, building fundraising donor databases, data mining, trade show speaker placement, product launches and perks fulfillment.

Last, but not least, make sure the PR firm is thinking long term with initial Crowdfunding PR campaign. This means they need to completely understand building brand share awareness as well as business distribution channels for your products and services.

YouCaring.com set a new records for visitors and money raised for its users during April 2013. In one day, the site attracted more than 87,000 unique visitors and raised $181,841.

YouCaring online Crowdfunding Website

The increased traffic continues a trend for YouCaring, which has nearly doubled its traffic since February to more than 1 million visitors in April. Site founder Brock Ketcher believes the growth is due to an important feature of the site that sets YouCaring apart from other fundraising websites.

“When people fall on hard times, other people are always looking for ways to lend a helping hand,” Ketcher said. “And YouCaring.com is the first truly free way to raise money online. Every dollar our users raise from friends and family is able to go to their medical expenses, vet bills or memorial fund.”

Unlike other crowdfunding websites, YouCaring does not take a percentage of donations to cover its costs, but instead relies on the generosity of donors to support the site along with the cause they’ve chosen to fund.

“Our users make all the difference, and we are happy to provide a place where more people can raise the money the need for any cause that they believe in,” Ketcher said.

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Last June, BancBox, a payment services platform similar to Stripe, debuted its platform allowing developers to build a lot of different payment services. As cofounder Sanj Goyle claimed at the time, “PayPal could be built on top of our platform.” Now it has launched BancBox Crowd, what is — as far as we can tell — the first independent escrow service aimed at crowdfunding portals that operate on equity, debt or revenue share models.

BancBox Crowd claims to be the only solution on the market that provides online investment portals with an automated escrow solution that can replace the manual paper escrow process. They also say it is compliant with FINCEN, FINRA and SEC requirements.

In essence it means being able to create independent escrow accounts for each crowd-backed project, collect funds from those many investors, and either safely return funds if the project doesn’t work out, or disburse those funds when the project, whatever it is, reaches its funding goal.

Goyle says, “We want to have the payment part of the experience of an investor to be a sticky experience so we make it as easy as possible to pay and go through the process.” He says the business model is based on a set transaction fee to the platform partner.

You could say they know about payments. BancBox manages $100 million in consumer deposits daily in nearly 200,000 individual accounts. Its transaction volume has increased 100 percent to nearly $2 billion annually.

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